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Cinemagraphs

I have been wanting to try something for a while, but never really had the opportunity. It's called a Cinemagraph It's a moving Picture. You may laugh and go "Isn't that just a video you retard?"

to which I would respond with "NO YOU FOOL!"

Its basically a gif file, but it's a video that you 'freeze' everything in, except for a point of interest.

For example, (and i've only done one so far) I video'd a mates engine bay at the dyno comp today. With slight lighting changes, and a reflection in his polished alloy cover of someone walking past, i could freeze all that, and have just his cam gears spinning.

So here is the point that I present you with SHARPYS FIRST CINEMAGRAPH!

Before opening your document, go to "Window" then "Workspace" then "Motion"

This will open up a timeline bar down the bottom of your window.

Now open your file.

Once your file is open, you can press the space bar to play through and pause.

At the top of your timeline you will see two blue rectangles on either side that you can slide across to shorten and select the length your animation will be.

Once you have selected your range of animation, hit Control + J to duplicate your layer. Right click your new layer, and click "Rasterize".

This next step is the most difficult point of making a believable cinemagraph, the animation has to loop incredibly smoothly. Take your time and be very selective about your choice.

Once this is done click "Add layer mask" from down the bottom of your "Layers" toolbar (Looks like a white circle in a grey rectangle).

Your top layer - the still image - is now masking over the top of the animation. What you need to do is then get a black paintbrush, and then paint over the areas of the image that you want to animate.

So unmask the layer by painting over the the part of the image you want to move. (The picture itself shouldnt look any different as you're painting, but the white layer over in the layers section should be having 'paint marks' on it in respect to where you're painting)

Once this is done the layer preview in the layers toolbar will be mostly white with a black mark where you've been painting.

Press your space bar to test your animation to see if the lighting and motion matches fluidly.

If you've done this correctly you will see a short loop of the moving part you painted, and everything else should remain still

Once your happy with your mask and your animation, you can resize your image.

You can sharpen and edit the top layer as you need to for other animations

To save your image click "Save for web and devices". Change the "Animation" down the bottom right to "Infinite" or "Forever" and then save.